Hurry up, Motorola

We have mixed feelings about Motorola. On the one hand it's responsible for the impressive Xoom and Atrix, as well as the QWERTY-rocking Milestones (or Droids, to the Yanks). On the other hand, the US manufacturer is frustratingly slow, and slower still when it comes to releasing its wares on our side of the Atlantic.

Still, we wouldn’t wish ill upon our greatest enemies, never mind an ailing mobile phone manufacturer. Here’s why we’re quite eager for Moto to get its highly anticipated new goodies on shelves.

We’ve been wading through Q2 results over the past few weeks, and while things are fairly peachy for Apple, Samsung and HTC, Motorola joined RIM and Nokia in the poo pile. And that’s despite selling 4.4 million smartphones and almost half a million tablets.

While Motorola only has itself to blame, we do feel quite sympathetic. The Motorola Atrix is pretty sweet, no? But, despite being one of only five dual-core smartphones available in the UK (it’s five now, with the LG Optimus 3D, right?), the HTC Sensation and Samsung Galaxy S II are completely hogging the limelight.

And the Motorola Xoom was originally touted as an “iPad Killer”, but Apple is still giving Android a total beatdown in the tablet world. In fact, it’s Asus laying claim to the second biggest-selling tablet, in the Eee Pad Transformer.

The dual-core Droid Bionic was first revealed at CES in Vegas in January, but still hasn’t hit shelves (a fine example of Motorola only having itself to blame). The latest from Jha & Co suggests September. Which means we might see it before Christmas in the UK. But don't hold your breath.

The Droid Bionic goes head to head with HTC and Samsung’s big boys, stretching the Atrix’s screen from 4in to 4.3in, and upping the megapixelage from 5MP to 8MP. That’s more like it.

But will it be too little too late? We’re more excited about a little something called the Motorola Targa.

The Motorola Targa first surfaced in March. Indeed, there was subsequent speculation that the Targa might supersede the Droid Bionic, but we now know that won’t be the case.

Howard Forums was first to reveal the Motorola Targa, with a series of shots leaked by stalwart wnrussell. They were accompanied by rumours of a 13MP camera housed in the hump on its rear, and – get this – a quad-core processor. Now that would be something worth getting excited about.

Sadly, it’s been all quiet on the Targa front since March, other than a brief appearance in a series of leaked images of a revamped Motorola website. Pocketnow was first to get its hands on the slides, but Motorola insisted that they be taken down.

A Christmas launch was initially suggested, but we’d be surprised if we see the Motorola Targa before 2012.

Anyway, hurry up. That’s what we say to thee, Motorola.

Incidentally, this seems like a good time to recount the tale of my most-hated phone. In July 2007 I was duped by a PR demo, and bought a Motorola Z8. Christ knows why, possibly because it boasted the Bourne Identity out of the box, and a free Bluetooth headset. What an idiot.

The Motorola Z8 felt cheap and plasticy, was a nightmare to send text messages with, struggled to play the bloomin’ Bourne Identity, and ultimately died. I chucked it in a drawer and happily went back to my supposedly inferior Sony Ericsson w810i for several months.